Glowing Years Ministry (GYM)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed incredible hardship and pain for many people and especially for many older adults and their families. Older adults have the greatest risk of requiring hospitalization or dying if they’re diagnosed with COVID-19. This has been one of the most heart breaking fallouts of the pandemic. We also know that many older families living with dementia or other significant illness during COVID-19 have been hit especially hard physically, socially, and emotionally. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the experience of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

GYM, as a ministry focusing on seniors to provide spiritual, health and mental health care, is continuously concerned on how older adults would respond to COVID-19 and about how loneliness and isolation would affect them even as we enter into the new normal phase. Moving on we strive for our seniors to adapt and adjust well in the face of adversity, stress, trauma, tragedy, threats—such as family and relationship problems, life-altering health problems, disasters, COVID-19, etc. In order to achieve this, we would like to see our seniors coping well with the COVID-19 pandemic by developing crisis competence believing that: as we get older, we get the sense that we’re going to be able to handle it, because we’ve been able to handle challenges in the past. We know we get past it. These things happen, but there’s an end to it, and there’s a life after that. 

After the pandemic, Senior Connect continued to organise its monthly on sight gathering at PLMC to provide opportunity for seniors to gather on a regular basis every second Thursday of the month to meet old friends and make new ones, learn new life skills for better living & engage in wholesome activities. In addition to that, for the first time Senior Connect also collaborated with GYM Walk Kaki to organise an excursion for the seniors.

To cater to demand of our seniors and in an effort to promote active life style there were 2 walks organised per month: one on a weekday and another on a weekend. The group was small with an average of 10 participants at each walk, with their ages range from 50s to 80s. Over time, the participants enjoyed travelling to different parts of Singapore, ranging from various park connectors to urban exploration of new and emerging infrastructures and facilities.

When the Covid situation in Singapore transitioned from pandemic to endemic in 2022, Immanuel Ukulele resumed their physical fortnightly practices and were actively engaged in many outreach events. Prior to this, they held their practices over zoom. The group also resumed their monthly sing a-long sessions at the three St Luke’s Eldercare centres viz St Luke’s Meadow Centre, St Luke’s Serangoon Centre and St Luke’s Hougang Centre. Upon the invitation of the Police Academy, the team presented a Christmas item to an audience of close to 200 people on 13 December at the Academy’s Christmas celebration event.

GYM Line dance resumed 3 classes at PLMC Fellowship hall in May 2022. Prior to that, we were nomads searching out dance venues to hold our classes in the Lorong Ah Soo area. However, we give thanks to God for He has always provided! In October 2022, the Line dancers presented a repertoire of dances to the songs/music provided by the Ukulele Team for Laity Sunday. In December 2022, we had our annual LD Christmas party at RSYC. It was a fun time of dancing, games and feasting. Our Ps Jacob also shared a message of God’s gift, Jesus, the reason for Christmas. This event gives our pre-believing Line dancers an opportunity to hear the Gospel message. Line dance Jams were organized for our members almost monthly to enjoy. It is a test of stamina and memory for our Dancers as a long list of old and new dances are played.

We praise God for His guidance & direction.